Meet Tabay: freshmen, food truck owner and aspiring paleontologist

Tabay Atkins, a freshman at MSU, started the semester with 18 credits. Recently though, he dropped a class in his paleonetology-track coursework to create a more manageable credit load for his other passion — operating a food truck.

Atkins has been running a vegan food truck for four years and brought it to Bozeman when he started his studies at MSU.

“I decided to go vegan when I was 12 years old,” he said. His choice to become vegan was shaped by his experience with yoga and his mother’s battle with cancer. 

“She was misdiagnosed for almost a year, so by the time she was diagnosed [with cancer], she had to do very intensive chemotherapy, which broke her body down,” Atkins said. 

According to him, his mother got into yoga after she had beaten cancer.

“She still had all the effects of chemotherapy. She couldn't walk on her own, couldn't bend her knees,” he said. “I noticed that after her training she was able to walk again and she was healthier and happier than even before she had cancer.”

Atkins said he was inspired by this and became a certified yoga teacher when he turned 10. He later got another yoga certification specifically for cancer patients and survivors.

“If yoga is a part of your life, you're going to hear about veganism whether you like it or not,” he said.

According to Atkins, his mom attended culinary school and taught him to cook, which helped make the transition easier. “All I had to do was replace non-vegan foods with something vegan, and voila.”

After his own transition to veganism, Atkins says he started teaching community classes to help others make their favorite foods vegan. Then he decided that he wanted to move into the food service space. “I opened the food truck up because I wanted to make vegan food more enjoyable and more accessible.” 

According to Atkins, even though California is a “vegan paradise,” his truck was one of the only vegan options in his area.

Atkins started the truck at 16, and maintained the business in Orange County, California before moving it for a year and a half to the island of Maui, Hawai’i. 

After the food truck was established on Maui, he decided to move to Tempe and go to Arizona State University (ASU) on campus. 

“Back in 2024, I was still in California and I started my college education through ASU online.

“I decided I want to go on campus instead of online,” he said. “I had done online homeschool for all of middle school and high school, so I was really over it.”

Atkins moved to Tempe, and in the first few weeks of that semester, his family’s home on Maui burned down. Because of this, he withdrew from school and went back to the island to sort things out.

Atkins discovered MSU while on a roadtrip, where his family stopped at the Museum of the Rockies (MOR) in Bozeman. “I spent the whole day immersed in the museum,” he said. “At the end of the day, I get back to the RV, and my grandma says, ‘I got a gift for you.’” She gave him an MSU shirt because she had thought it was for MOR.

Eventually, his family’s trip concluded and Atkins started his research to see where he wanted to transfer to. “I was like, ‘Well, I have this T-shirt, let's see what MSU has to offer,’” he said. “The big sell was the paleontology program — it's very rare to get paleo as an undergrad.”

Atkins moved to Montana last December. “Bozeman is absolutely amazing. I've been having the best time, the best experience,” he said. “The community is so amazing.”

Since the truck’s opening in Bozeman in July Tabay’s Mindful Kitchen has hosted a few community events that Atkins is planning to keep scheduled.

“On the first Sunday of every month I offer a free community yoga class,” he said. “My favorite [event] is the ranger talk.” Atkins is hoping to offer a “Ranger Talk” every month, where he or a guest speaker will give an educational talk about something they are passionate about. 

Atkins said he is planning on continuing to serve the Bozeman community at least until his projected graduation in 2030. “If you're in Bozeman and want to go vegan, it's a lot easier now because I opened the food truck here,” he said.

To learn more about Tabay and his restaurant, visit https://tabaysmindfulkitchen.com.